They may find some of him, as they dismantle the wreckage, nobody can really say how he died, some say he was crushed to death by the pumps, some say he was killed by the blast wave, some even say he was vaporised, one day we will find out.
@@nathanrigg2790 That is not entirely true. Entombed means that you are buried within or underneath something. An example would be the mummified bodies of the Pharaohs of Egypt, as they were entombed within the Pyramids. Valery was entombed within/underneath the ruins of Reactor 4.
When Scherebina told the plant workers: "You will do it because it must be done. You will do it because no one else can. If you don't, millions will die." He was saying that to real people. Real people willingly marched into a literal hell to safeguard their country and the world. Thank you to all those who sacrificed everything for all of us.
@@VPannagS Except they didn't, there was never any threat of a multimegaton blast. Only, at worst, a possible second steam explosion. Still could have been bad, but it wouldn't have been anywhere near as bad as the show depicts. More likely it would have just contaminated more of the groundwater, again, not good, but not world ending either. A Nuclear power plant cannot become a Nuclear Bomb, and Chernobyl was no exception, it became a Dirty Bomb yes, but not a Nuclear one, let alone a thermonuclear one. It makes for good TV, good Drama, but it's not real.
But actually one of the divers said in an interview that the scene never happened in real life. Divers weren't even aware of the dangers. They were commanded to do it and they did because it was their job.
Most tragedys caused by the fools errend to pursue socialism tend to do that their own actions can be defined by the deaths of millions of human lives for a fantasy a dream and lie.
It’s even more fitting because this is Vichnaya Pamyat (eternal memory) the Eastern Orthodox funeral/memorial chant the Church Slavonic version that would be used in Ukrainian Belarus and Russia
Kurt, a quarter of a million where displaced and dozens got a horrible painful death. If saving two lives is all what the gods could do while not sparring the lives of thousands of innocents, then that doesn't seem so powerful at all does it? It seems like a sick joke to give praise to a God when only one of a family member survives while the rest dies by ransom. A pitiful non victory is your claim for your omnipotent God?
@@antoniomv9444 one thing ppl like you seems to forget, if someone or something is omnipotent why should they help anything and everyone? bcs fhey could? why? if they're omnipotent the mere presence of human like you and the entirety of the species didn't matter. omnipotent doesn't come with obligation and nor did labels of worthiness thrown by human means much to something that's omnipotent.
She had moved away from Kiev by the time the show aired and was living in a small town near Poland. She most likely got away, but her son is an adult, so he probably stayed behind!
matan ravia I myself feel that history has been too harsh on Dyatlov. Yes he caused the disaster by pushing the reactor too far but he wasn’t aware of the risks. At the time of the disaster the Soviet Union has boasted that there had been no incidents at a soviet nuclear reactor and that the RBMK design was flawless. In actual fact there had been fourteen major incidents with the RBMK design and countless other smaller ones. These were all hushed up and kept secret. For the Soviet Union and all communist countries, looking good was more important than safety. And that for me is the fascinating thing about Chernobyl. Who do you blame? You can’t blame the control room staff because they were just following orders. You can’t really blame Dyatlov as he wasn’t aware of the risks. You really can’t blame Brokanov or Fomin as they too were ignorant of the dangers. So who is accountable. The only thing you can conclusively blame for the disaster is the Soviet state itself as it kept all involved ignorant of the dangers and consequences. It’s like I say if you don’t tell a child that fire is hot, they will inevitably put their hand in it and get burned.
@@jackmunday7602 yeah but in a way, some of those you mention can be blamed. Dyatlov operated on the belief of a failsafe but he also consistently preached safety regulations and ignored warnings. The Soviet state may not have seen this coming but they were still mechanically and financially complacent. Brokanov and Formin didn't know of the dangers but one of them did let a reaction go into operation leaving one safety test undone. There are some who were just following orders and were just following orders yeah so you can't really blame some. I think the harshness is just us perceiving one as the sole cause instead of recognizing that many played a part. There are some things that can explain their actions but there are some aspects that validate responsibility.
@@kkwik5 Dyatlov didn't know about the faulty reactor construction. He thought it would withstand any test because he believed in the shutdown button. I'm sure he felt regret for the rest of his life.
well, there were couple of mutants in Chornobyl. Actually, due to mutant scare, I was almost not born. My father was a liquidator. Doctors persuaded both my parents to abort me. Since I could be a monster of sorts. Gladly, they were wrong, and the whole thing vastly exaggerated based on couple of instances.
KGB Chairman Charkov: "Why worry about something that isn't going to happen" Valery Legasov: "Oh, that's brilliant,..they should put that on our money."
It's kind of apt that we put "In God, we trust" on the dollar. Because that's the only thing we can trust when it comes to the value and worth of that bill of paper.
@@kroelld And communist trust in Government. Which failed as it usually does. And the people pay. And pay for a fat blood sucking government. No checks. No balances. Chernobyl was the result of such. Among many other things. Soviets were starving when they finally shed communism/socialism.
@@zippyzipster46 that “starving”, thing is a complete myth. It is untrue. In fact, many people probably started to starve in the 90s as a result of the unions collapse. But as for Chernobyl, you could say it was indirectly a result of the system in place in the USSR.
Last I heard about it they are still living in misery. Making enough money to survive despite her poor condition never to have been compensated by the people who caused this.
I literally broke into tears during the final scene of this, the greatest TV production ever conceived. The footage shown at the end served to cement the fact, *This isn't fiction* - These were actual true heroes, who paid with their lives. The epilogue accompanied by a beautiful Slavic orthodox hymn paved the way for some brutally heart wrenching minutes. The episode recieved a rare high rating of 10 on IMDb.
What makes me angry is how easily it could have been prevented by reviewing the design flaws/cancelling the test in the first place. But, of course, this is the Soviet government we’re talking about, and of course, they didn’t. RIP to all those who are lost.
according to another comment, there was a book written about ther. In short, hers and many who were effected by this did not lead good lives due to being abandoned by the state.
Honestly, Lyudmilla Ignatenko’s story was the most heartbreaking in my opinion from this whole story. To go from being a newlywed living in a stable living situation to losing your husband and daughter to horrific deaths in days must be the hardest thing to live through. I’m so happy that she recovered and now has a son after defying all odds and expectations
Honestly if you haven’t had the chance to read voices from Chernobyl she has an account in the book and you’ll see how much she went through. I won’t give off any spoilers
My grandpa served as a chemist in the soviet army. He was one of those liquidators at Chernobyl. Now he's spending his last days on earth in fear of russian bombs.
The host behind Veritasium visited the very basement depicted in this show, and it’s arguably one of the most dangerous places to be on Earth apart from the broken reactor core at Chernobyl. ruclips.net/video/TRL7o2kPqw0/видео.html
@@Seadog7981 Go there, enter that room, put a piece of firefighters' gear on and you'll get a lethal dose of radiation in few minutes. That's how radioactive it is. It's horrifying.
This series is proof, if ever proof was needed in the first place, that hero’s exist and the don’t wear stupid costumes, the come from all walks of life. some don’t want to be hero’s and many don’t expect to be
Interesting fact: In Chinese language, specifically Mandarin, the pronunciation of the number “four” is similar to “Die” or “Death”. Therefore, number 4 is usually seen as a bad omen. Boris died in four years and four months after he was sent to Chernobyl, so for us Chinese audience, his death was almost prophetic.
I'm surprised that Winnie the Pooh allowed people in China to watch the show, considering that questioning and objecting against authority when they get things wrong is a major theme in it.
@@Xipe-totex I'm from Ukraine, noone think it was a myth here. There are couple of idiots or vatniks who believe in conspiracies about it, but noone actually denying it happened.
Very likely he cut a deal to take the sentence to protect higher ups from recrimination for keeping the reactor design flaw a secret, and ordering unsafe tests at his plant. The fact that there was never another disaster implies that he, hopefully, learned a hard lesson that he took into his new job
IN Europe we learn a bit about it. The further east you go, the more you learn about it i would say. I'm Macedonian and I probably learned more about this in school than the Belgians did but probably less than the Polish and Belarussians.
Maybe the school systems in high school don't include the event as it was in another country and believed the issue wouldn't pertain to the US. Maybe it's because it's a very sensitive topic. There may be multiple reasons.
She had moved away from Kiev by the time the show aired and was living in a small town near Poland. She most likely got away, but her son is an adult, so he probably stayed behind!
For those of you wondering, this piece titled “Vichnaya Pamyat”translates to “Perpetual Memory” or “Eternal Memory”. Very chilling and somber. In memory of all who suffered and sacrificed ❤️ You will always be remembered.
@242turbo try watching ‘Come and See’ - a soviet film about partisans in Belarus in WW2. That film has the most disturbing cinematography you’ll ever see
Hello. I'm from Russia. I am glad that thanks to this series, the whole world will know (maybe someone will just remember) about this catastrophe. Keep the souls of the dead
Yes it indeed did boost up alot of fame, Chernobyl was already famous though even before the series like for example in my hometown in mexico, all the way in mexico!, Knew about this disaster like the palm of their hand, Ever since i can remember this story has been known world wide ever since the soviets released info it was a hit story, But then the hype kind of died out and this series brought it all together again.
Hello from Poland and now from Scotland. I remember very well the catastrophe and despite the censorship, I know that the sacrifice of the people was HEROIC.
These series introduce me to how Sovyet was trying to cope their mistake...its really honorable how their people try to mend up the faulty of Sovyet Government...not just simply put blame on everything like The USA told us to.. But in the end..those people of Sovyet Union were forgotten...and the big name, the villain, the hero, and the other will always be remembered.
I was a kid when this happened. I was living on the Belarusian border with Russia. Sad that I was somewhat close when it happened. I didn't even know the true scale until I watched this. Thank you writers and creators of this mini-series
My favorite part of this music begins at 3:10. The music builds, grows louder, adds more voices to the harmony, until the bass comes in just after 3:24 below a full stack of voices. "It has been widely reported that the three divers who drained the bubbler tanks died as a result of their heroic actions." Then the primary choir returns, almost hopeful, when the text says the three divers survived at 3:31.
@@bdtmstrs It's not that surprising in hindsight. Before Chernobyl happened they didn't really know the widespread effect of radiation or how much radiation the protective equipment they had at the time could take. While this level of radiation turned out to be even deadlier than people thought, protective equipment, especially those made with lead, also turned out to be much better than they thought at protecting people from radiation poisoning. The equipment those guys had could have protected them from double the dose of radiation they received without much trouble. It's the same reason why General Pikalov survived without getting sick even though he got so close to the core.
@@bobbyrobbisn9732 obviously you can't donate on their patreon or something. And actually, remembering them is the best way to tribute because people live until they are forgotten. Those people were true heroes who sacrificed their lives for ours. May they rest well
There’s something so terrifying to me about Khodemchuk, if I’m spelling that right. A lot of people have died as a cause of Chernobyl and the lies that followed, of course. But I find his fate so much scarier. To not only die in reactor 4, not only has his body never been recovered, but to be told he is PERMANENTLY ENTOMBED UNDERNEATH THE EXPLODED REACTOR… really got to me. This series isn’t just my favourite miniseries, not just tv show,, but my favourite piece of visual media. The way it can build up all of these domino pieces and knock them all back down by the end is incredible, as is every single filmmaking element you could think of. And this ending montage just goes to show how much scarier reality is than fiction. I may never not cry when hearing, “what is the cost of lies,” ever again.
One has to hope he died immediately because the alternative, a slow prolonged death by ARS, or worse, starvation or thirst, trapped alone beneath a burning nuclear reactor, doesn't bear thinking about.
In an overly politicized world, to create such a powerful message that transcends all else in especially extraordinary. It is the highest form of art. Amazing 👏
I was very thankful for the ending monologue, it was nice for once to get questions answered or details that were eluded to but not really answer until the end. specifically the bridge scene. The fact they were not able to find anyone who survived the bridge viewing from episode one and that two of the men who opened the valves in episode 3 are still alive impressed me they really did there research for this show. I am glad HBO actually released this after that disastrous season 8 game of thrones. Boris Shcherbina started out as someone i did not like at all and by the ending of the show he reminded me of my father all discipline, all hard noise, and no apology for it his ending monologue about not being important that made me see the connection.
It's unfortunate though that the Bridge of Death is mostly urban myth according to the people who knew people went to the bridge and were still alive. In fact, survivors are kinda annoyed over this myth
Unfortunately (or more accurately, fortunately) the line about the Bridge of Death is, for an incredibly well researched and accurate series, almost certainly false and quite surprising it was included. There is essentially zero evidence for it, and there are recorded interviews with at least one of the people there by a leading author on Chernobyl no less (who would have been a major research source), making it bizarre to claim they couldn't find anyone alive despite all their research.
My girlfriend is Ukrainian. In 2016 I went with her to visit her family. Of course I’ve been to Ukraine many more times since then. I told her how I badly wanted to visit Pripyat and see everything. She was very upset with me and told me not to go. I spoke with her family on other occasions about this disaster. It’s heartbreaking. But when this series came out? It was very hard for me to watch it. I love my girlfriend and her family deeply. And to see what happened to the Ukrainian people at that time broke me. I know why she didn’t want me to go. It just wasn’t about the radiation. It’s about the deaths of many people and what the Soviets did to their own people. Ukraine will always have a special place in my heart.
I've seen videos of tours there. Some actually take you right next to the wall where the reactor itself was along with the debris, then you get to go into the control room but due to radiation levels there, you can't be there long and the tour guide rushes you. I really wanna visit it just to see for myself
@@EscMoonlight I'm hearing many stories from people in Pripyat, from a few people there getting cancer, to no one, to a huge crowd. Who knows??? It's a mixed bag. We just may never truly know....
Yesterday marked 34 years since the disaster, I rewatched this ending just to make myself shed as many tears as I could. It was before my time but I still feel I owe them that.
If they didn't act like the movie told us..we might not even here right now. Imagine, mass evacuation of entire Europe Continent and radiated Atlantic Ocean...The world surely will colapse straightly in just 2 years..means 1990 will never going to exist at all.
I feel like the choir at 3:54-4:24 is chanting out the pain, anger, anguish, and betrayal that the people affected by this disaster felt. It's truly heartbreaking
As powerful this all is, I was quite surprised to find out that the other 3 reactors continued to operate till the final one was shut down in 2000. They are still in the process of decommissioning as of 2021.
Each RBMK reactor was retrofitted with a simple safety device that stopped what Dyatlov did from ever happening again. Not the best designed nuclear reactor, but I'm very sure if that wasn't looked over like it was we'd be in a different situation.
@@fuckenoathcunt4230 there already were interlocks to prevent Dyatlov from performing that "safety" test. But they were jumpered out (bypassed) in order for the test to happen. He, the other engineer and plant manager broke procedures
This was a beautiful and well made series but I must say, I take umbrage with their depiction of Dyatlov. In the show he's framed as a villain who's all too keen to throw his colleagues under the bus. In reality, he stayed at the plant until he got too sick to help clean up any more and at the trial, he stood by men like Akimov and Toptunov and maintained that they were only doing what he had told them to. He was a deeply damaged man who'd lost his son to leukemia, likely caused by radiation, and he died a sick, broken old man who had lost everything. The attempt to make him the villain of the piece is not only ghoulish, it completely contradicts Legasov's monologue at the start about how we shouldn't arbitrarily select heroes and villains in real life situations!
Tbh I think once you get to the end you no longer see Dytlov as a villain, after they explain how the reactor exploded they show that He actually did the right call an did the proper procedures that he was trained to do an the only villains at the end of it all were the lies that were told that caused more harm
@@therabbit2253 right call at that point was to cancel the experiment but he was under pressure to finish it sooner. He knew it wasn't safe, even Akimov clearly told him that, but of course he didn't know it was unsafe to the point it would explode, but still.
The part that terrifies me about this, is that since this airing the scientists have reported many items missing presumed taken by tourists. Things still highly radioactive like the fireman equipment. It's like people watched the show, but learned nothing.
I watched this series about a month ago. In light of the current war in Ukraine, I definitely hope that Lyudmilla and her son are alive and safe. I also thought I would share this information that I found out about some other Chernobyl survivors who are, or are likely, being impacted by the war. According to the Daily Mail, Alexei Ananenko, one of the two still living divers, had to flee Kyiv with his wife near the start of the war. I also found another RUclips video from 2019 where the person who posted it was visiting the memorial to Valery Khodemchuk during a tour at the plant. According to the plant worker who was giving the tour, as of 2019, Valery's widow was living in Kyiv while his daughter was living with her family in Minsk, the capital of Belarus. Belarus is Russia's ally in this, so I can't imagine the impact this war must be having on the Khodemchuk family. It's just awful that these survivors have to go through trauma for a second time in their lives.
A dark reminder of how much human pride can destroy an entire country and it's people throughout history in a vicious cycle of mistakes that will never end.
I was born in 1997 in Poland, shortly thereafter my parents moved me and my brother to the UK in search of a better life. I love my parents and how they pushed me and my brother to have a better life. However, given the time of our births, I feel like a lifedebt is forever owwed on my part to these fallen heroes. What is this had gone unchecked? Would Poland have become uninhabitable? Would my parents have met? I certainly doubt it. To the producers at HBO, thank you for honouring the fallen with this touching memorial, and I once again, am eternally thankful to those that payed the ultimate price. I owe you more than my mere life, I owe my entire existence.
I was born in 1985 also in Poland i had 1 year when disaster struck i received “lugola”medicine it was to stop thyroid from absorbing radioactive iodine in air my parents told me it was one of most frightening part of their life i hope humanity will never again be subjected to radiation going out of control .
3:26 These three brave men unknowingly saved the entire world and history may not remember them, but we will. Rest in peace Alexei Ananenko, Valeri Bespalov, and Boris Baranov
A comment from one of the witnesses of those days: Every now and then one can encounter an "allergic reaction" from the Russian side, which accuses the makers of the series that, despite its "apparent attention to some details," it lies about fundamental matters, including making the "Soviet people" into some kind of slackers, and the Soviet authorities into incompetent cynics for whom their own citizens are cannon fodder, with whose lives no one counts. As I was a direct witness to the events after the catastrophe, I can tell you from autopsy what was NOT shown in the series, and what makes the enormity of Soviet sleaze and cynicism was incomparably greater than was shown in the series. The Kremlin and their stooges should be grateful that viewers were not shown: 1. The fact that the demonstrations on the first of May - along with the obligatory presence of the children spent on them - took place in both Kiev and Minsk as if nothing had ever happened. Only the families of party secretaries urgently traveled outside the cities. The remaining children, along with their parents, customarily formed a "mass". 2. That children's health problems, which began in Ukraine and Belarus as early as May 1986, were explained by the authorities by "sprayed mandarins" from Georgia or Armenia. 3. That radioactive clouds were dispersed (shot) over Belarus - only to prevent them from coming with the wind over Moscow. As a result, 1/3 of the territory of Belarus was contaminated. (By the way, the fictional character Ulyana Khomyuk from Minsk is a kind of tribute to the country that suffered the most - otherwise no one would have heard about Belarus at all). 4. The fact that a huge amount of radiation year after year poisoned (still poisons?) the entire Ukraine with the water string Pripyat - Kiev reservoir (supplying the entire city of Kiev with water) - Dnieper all the way to the Black Sea. The Pripyat River is extremely contaminated. 5. The fact that the maps of radioactive contamination of Belarus and Ukraine published in newspapers a few months after the catastrophe (in "Evening Minsk" and "Ukrainskaya Pravda" respectively) do not connect with each other in any way - on one side of the border everything is contaminated, on the other it is clean. We all understand that these maps were not prepared in the editorial offices of local newspapers.... These maps - are pure fiction prepared by the KGB. On these maps, all major cities of the region (Kiev, Chernihiv, Gomel, Mogilev) were skillfully avoided by radiation. 6. The fact that ordinary people knew nothing about the accident and the danger for weeks on end, and it could not occur to anyone to at least protect children from running and playing under the long-awaited May rain. 7. The fact that in the USSR, NO ONE gave out Lugol's fluid to anyone so that "ordinary" iodine would be absorbed by the thyroid gland before it absorbed radioactive iodine. It was the Polish Communists who cared about the population - the Soviet authorities did not even minimally care. 8. That, for example, in starving Crimea, where there had never been any meat in the stores, even in better years (except for a few "resort" stores), suddenly in the summer of 1986 a huge batch of mutton was "thrown" at the price of potatoes. Where this meat came from - no one knew, but you can draw your own conclusions. 9. That, according to the orders of the authorities, the contaminated meat should have been made into cold cuts, and the more expensive the cold cuts, the higher the content of contaminated meat had to be (that supposedly people were "less likely" to buy expensive cold cuts, through which they would be less poisoned.... Here is the REAL care of the Soviet authorities for the population!) 10. That all food produced in the contaminated zone - milk, vegetables, canned food (not at all just meat), was exported and sold in "clean" regions - presumably in order to "average the temperature of patients throughout the hospital." This is what they didn't show us in the series, because such an amount of nightmare and cynicism would have made the series simply unbelievable in the eyes of an unprepared viewer. I, on the other hand, was a WITNESS, and that's how I know that the truth looked even worse than it does from the series.
It has been 35 years today since what happened to Chernobyl. Thank you again to the people who sacrificed. The world would probably not be like that if they did not do that.
I think it is our salvation if we are to break away from Fossil Fuels for electricity generation, especially considering the idea of Thorium reactors. But the utmost care needs to be put into place. Chernobyl unfortunately gets used so much to oppose nuclear power, when in reality every part of the process (reactor designer, engineers on site and USSR government regulation) failed miserably.
120 likes & 0 dislikes. Not great, not terrible. In all seriousness, this is a beautiful ending to such a tragic event, it kind of sad that I was not alive during the time of Chernobyl and was also never really taught about it. Because of this series, I’m glad to finally know how it all came to be. May those who sacrificed their live to prevent this disaster from spreading further Rest in Peace.
I just came back to this video, as I remembered the information of Ludmilla Ignatenko living in Kyiv. Thinking about her these days and it breaks my heart to think, she has go through hell twice in her life, probably need to send her son to armed forces, based on his estimated age.
Tschernobyl in a sentence: "Man's reach exceeded his grasp." We will never forget what happened and those that sacrificed themselves to save the rest of the world.
My grandmother was one of the scientists who was involved in the process of liquidating. She worked in the institute of Nuclear Power in Kyiv. Same building that was shown as nuclear institute in Belarus in the show. They had frames, like a metal detector, but ones that detect active particles. To check if you are not contaminated after an experiment for example. So the thing is that after the explosion, the frames would ring alarm when workers were coming FROM OUTSIDE into the building. This mess was all over the streets of my hometown. And now my home is bombed by other enemy - Russia, who is a direct heir of soviet regime. I am lucky that I left the country long ago, but my grandmother is still alive and lives in Kyiv. She was born during ww2, survived chernobyl and now there is another war. I love her so much, but afraid that will never see her again
To the brave men and women, thank you for giving the ultimate sacrifice to not only Ukraine but to all of Europe. May god bring you ever lasting peace forever. May you continue to rest in peace.
This epilogue is hauntingly beautiful. You can see the brave men and women who saved the world from a terrible fate, but the price they had to pay for it was high. Despite their bold sacrifices, justice was never truly served in the CCCP. Only after it collapsed in 1991 did all of us hear what actually happened in that irradiated nightmare during 1986. It was only years later that I learnt my uncle was a liquidator and that it ultimately costed him his life. He had brought me to the outskirts of the exclusion zone a couple of years before his death. I asked him: “What happened to the people who cleaned this place up?” In his usual deep and vibrating voice he said: “Bad things happened to alot of them, but they are at peace now. Trough sacrifice and tears, there was victory, but at a cost. Our family will notice sooner or later what was sacrificed.” I had no idea that he was actually talking about himself here, and it blew me away into a emotional rollercoaster when I finally realized. I’m still in possession of his liquidators medal.
For those of us who remember Chernobyl as a real time event, I can tell you, our information was very limited at the time. We knew something had occurred because of Scandinavian radiation detectors. It took days for the Kremlin to acknowledge the accident. In the 80s, life was a continual bluff and military buildup between the US and the USSR. A nuclear accident in the USSR just amped the tension. I remember reading articles about the "liquidators" and the miners building the containment buffer, but the extent of the accident was not well known at the time. Watching Chernobyl was doubly horrific. Both as a devastating event for Ukraine and Belarus and vivid memory for those alive during that time.
I went there in 2018. If youre old enough to remember this (not just heard about it from this series), it was cool to put a vision to the memories.... even in Los Angeles we were worried about the radioactive cloud that was being carried by the jet stream... Pripyat, the city just outside of the Reactor area, is a trip. Totally surreal. Major city with high rise buildings, completely abandoned, with a forrest growing all through it. Photographers dream. Highly recommend getting out there if you can. And this series was amazing.
I want to see the memorial wall for Khodemchuck. It’s on the wall that sections Reactor 4 off from the rest of the plant. I hope someday in the future they are able to find any of his remains, or at least where he was in his last moments. But it’s suspected that he was either vaporized instantly by the explosion, or the amount of radiation cause his entire body to melt. Either way, his death was quick. This happened nine years before I was born. The biggest disaster I’ve ever been witness to live (sort of) was 9/11, which happened when I was five. I remember watching it on TV at school. but I still really want to go and see Chernobyl and Pripyat. How do I explain it…it’s like, you read and learn about these disastrous events, and you see the pictures, and you know it really happened, but it still doesn’t quite feel real. The only way to cement that it happened is to see it for yourself. Kinda like how I wanted to take a trip in a sub to see the Titanic’s resting place (not possible of course, as I’m pretty sure they’ve declared you can’t dive to it anymore). I did take a trip to NYC a few years after 9/11 and we saw ground zero, and it was really surreal. Just a big empty space where the twin towers used to be. I think they were even still cleaning away the rubble, because the area was fenced off.
Something they left out but also really should be known about this: The other 3 reactors at Chernobyl remained in operation until a fire broke out in the turbine hall of Reactor No. 2 in 1991 forcing them to shut that one down permanently too. This incident ended up compelling the Ukrainian government to start decommissioning the facility in 1996 and shut down Reactor No. 1. Final operations ceased when Reactor No. 3 was shut down in 2000.
Chernobyl power plant was needed to feed huge over-the-horizon missile launch detection system hosted nearby en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Duga_radar, so shutting the satiation down during Soviet Union was not possible until the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1992. In 1992 Ukraine got the independence, in 1994 there were first more-or-less democratic parliamentary elections in Ukraine, it took some for the Ukrainian Parliament to get to the Chernobyl issue (as there were other issues, believe me), and then there was a decision to decommission the station.
@@sliiiin There is a massive electric grid in the USSR that could have done that, it's just that this grid was very important in the USSR, and men like Valery Legasov even said themselves that an unexpected shutdown of a Nuclear Reactor is a serious incident.
This ending music captures the scale and doom of the Chernobyl disaster, I also believe this music sums up all disasters in history and the horrific aftermath that always follows. I could not help but think of this music being used on a tribute of the aftermath of the sinking of the Titanic, it just fits so well.
Indeed, that is the purpose of all Memory Eternal pieces, which are sung at funerals and other memorial services at Orthodox Christian churches. No matter the scale of the loss or tragedy, it is given to those of us who live to never forget those who have left us. Just this past Sunday at my church, we ended our usual service with a full memorial in honor of those celebrated on Memorial Day - with all the living former members of the armed services up front to honor those departed. The music suits such a day, Chernobyl, the sinking of the Titantic, and all other such losses both past and to come!
I went into the show expecting a harrowing documentative drama about the Chernobyl disaster, and I got it. But I was also presented with a glimpse into Soviet paranoia, a few of the most compellingly written characters I've ever seen, and an epic of tragic bravery. What a show.
They left out a really interesting fact that Chernobyl still continued to make power with its other 3 reactors even after the meltdown. It stopped making power in 2000.
"What's something that stuck with you after making this series?" "You can be at fault but also be the victim, every time we go through a traffic light, we're in a conspiracy of thought, we're trusting something that to us is a sure fact, that others will let us go. Just how everyone knows no matter how much you push it, the reactor won't explode"
i watched this series with my dad who has dyslexia. as i was reading out the words on this epilogue to him they've become engrained in my mind. some traumatising stuff.
I watched this series during quarantine and it broke me. The immense tragedy of the human cost hurt me emotionally and I couldn't stop thinking about it for days.
To those who worked around the clock to stop the reactor from leaking, you saved the lives of not just every man and women in the region but all life on earth.
This epilogue still makes me cry just knowing how much pain and misery Chernobyl caused not only to the heroes who worked around the clock to stop it from getting worse but also to the world that watched in horror I believe Chernobyl if it's not already should be a World Heritage site as a reminder that humanity is fragile and delicate
I live in Bogota Colombia and in high school our history teacher told us the whole story in detail and how it happened, she didn't have to do it because it wasn't among the topics we were supposed to learn but she took her time to tell us everything what she knew about the disaster, one of the few teachers with a real vocation to teach that I had in my entire life.
You can take tours around Pripyat and indeed around the Chernobyl plant itself, away from the sarcophagus, of course. A particular dream of mine is to walk around such a place. A period of history pretty much frozen in time. Of course there are people who still live and work there, but the point stands.
"Valery Khodemchuk's body was never recovered. He is permanently entomed under Reactor 4."
God, that part broke me.
R.I.P everbody who suffered.
They may find some of him, as they dismantle the wreckage, nobody can really say how he died, some say he was crushed to death by the pumps, some say he was killed by the blast wave, some even say he was vaporised, one day we will find out.
m8, i dont think we ever will, I hope he had a quick demise without suffering. forever entombed in the hell gate that is Chernobyl reactor 4
What ‘entomed’ means?
@@leomessi-tf3ob He is forever buried in reactor 4
Entombed is basically buried where your not meant to be.
@@nathanrigg2790 That is not entirely true. Entombed means that you are buried within or underneath something.
An example would be the mummified bodies of the Pharaohs of Egypt, as they were entombed within the Pyramids.
Valery was entombed within/underneath the ruins of Reactor 4.
When Scherebina told the plant workers: "You will do it because it must be done. You will do it because no one else can. If you don't, millions will die." He was saying that to real people. Real people willingly marched into a literal hell to safeguard their country and the world. Thank you to all those who sacrificed everything for all of us.
Yes and these soldiers not only saved the country, but whole world.
@@VPannagS Except they didn't, there was never any threat of a multimegaton blast. Only, at worst, a possible second steam explosion. Still could have been bad, but it wouldn't have been anywhere near as bad as the show depicts. More likely it would have just contaminated more of the groundwater, again, not good, but not world ending either. A Nuclear power plant cannot become a Nuclear Bomb, and Chernobyl was no exception, it became a Dirty Bomb yes, but not a Nuclear one, let alone a thermonuclear one.
It makes for good TV, good Drama, but it's not real.
You guys are dopes
But actually one of the divers said in an interview that the scene never happened in real life. Divers weren't even aware of the dangers. They were commanded to do it and they did because it was their job.
@@MrZarewna my hero
This epilogue is perfection, it captures the tone and scale of the disaster and brilliantly pays tribute to all involved.
Very well said.
It in a way reminds me of the end of Schindler’s List
Most tragedys caused by the fools errend to pursue socialism tend to do that their own actions can be defined by the deaths of millions of human lives for a fantasy a dream and lie.
It’s even more fitting because this is Vichnaya Pamyat (eternal memory) the Eastern Orthodox funeral/memorial chant the Church Slavonic version that would be used in Ukrainian Belarus and Russia
Just goes to show you can't hide everything. 31 people versus tens of thousands. Soviet union fell hard and it's just bleak now everywhere.
"In fact, all three survived after hospitalization. Two are still alive today".
The sole HELL YEAH moment from this entire mess
That and Lyudmilla surviving and having a son
Kurt, a quarter of a million where displaced and dozens got a horrible painful death. If saving two lives is all what the gods could do while not sparring the lives of thousands of innocents, then that doesn't seem so powerful at all does it?
It seems like a sick joke to give praise to a God when only one of a family member survives while the rest dies by ransom. A pitiful non victory is your claim for your omnipotent God?
@@antoniomv9444 one thing ppl like you seems to forget, if someone or something is omnipotent why should they help anything and everyone? bcs fhey could? why? if they're omnipotent the mere presence of human like you and the entirety of the species didn't matter. omnipotent doesn't come with obligation and nor did labels of worthiness thrown by human means much to something that's omnipotent.
I read somewhere that the two divers are actually neighbours to this day!
@@antoniomv9444 "If god real, why suffering? I am very smart!"
"She lives with her son in kiev"
Oh, fuck.
Imagine running out of a nuclear disaster to end in the middle of a war
I first watched this show the other day and I screamed when I saw that caption.
She had moved away from Kiev by the time the show aired and was living in a small town near Poland. She most likely got away, but her son is an adult, so he probably stayed behind!
@@Xagii1 Special nuclear operation.
Poor woman can’t catch a freaking break
I hope there is a heaven... because men like Valery Legasov and Boris Sherebina deserve to be there.
and i hope also there is hell, for dyatlov.
matan ravia I myself feel that history has been too harsh on Dyatlov. Yes he caused the disaster by pushing the reactor too far but he wasn’t aware of the risks. At the time of the disaster the Soviet Union has boasted that there had been no incidents at a soviet nuclear reactor and that the RBMK design was flawless.
In actual fact there had been fourteen major incidents with the RBMK design and countless other smaller ones. These were all hushed up and kept secret. For the Soviet Union and all communist countries, looking good was more important than safety.
And that for me is the fascinating thing about Chernobyl. Who do you blame? You can’t blame the control room staff because they were just following orders. You can’t really blame Dyatlov as he wasn’t aware of the risks. You really can’t blame Brokanov or Fomin as they too were ignorant of the dangers. So who is accountable. The only thing you can conclusively blame for the disaster is the Soviet state itself as it kept all involved ignorant of the dangers and consequences. It’s like I say if you don’t tell a child that fire is hot, they will inevitably put their hand in it and get burned.
@@jackmunday7602 yeah but in a way, some of those you mention can be blamed. Dyatlov operated on the belief of a failsafe but he also consistently preached safety regulations and ignored warnings. The Soviet state may not have seen this coming but they were still mechanically and financially complacent. Brokanov and Formin didn't know of the dangers but one of them did let a reaction go into operation leaving one safety test undone. There are some who were just following orders and were just following orders yeah so you can't really blame some. I think the harshness is just us perceiving one as the sole cause instead of recognizing that many played a part. There are some things that can explain their actions but there are some aspects that validate responsibility.
@@jackmunday7602 Dyatlov looking like a broken man with deep regrets. You can hate him all you want but the Soviet system is mostly responsible.
@@kkwik5 Dyatlov didn't know about the faulty reactor construction. He thought it would withstand any test because he believed in the shutdown button. I'm sure he felt regret for the rest of his life.
No zombies.... No mutants.... No creepy monsters.....Only truth 😔
Rip all victims of Chernobyl 🥀
Somehow we are living on those time..and might be even worse.
Who knows, maybe in the Red Forest near Pripyat there are some mutants.
😢
Maybe you Should try playing Stalker
well, there were couple of mutants in Chornobyl. Actually, due to mutant scare, I was almost not born. My father was a liquidator. Doctors persuaded both my parents to abort me. Since I could be a monster of sorts. Gladly, they were wrong, and the whole thing vastly exaggerated based on couple of instances.
KGB Chairman Charkov: "Why worry about something that isn't going to happen"
Valery Legasov: "Oh, that's brilliant,..they should put that on our money."
It's kind of apt that we put "In God, we trust" on the dollar. Because that's the only thing we can trust when it comes to the value and worth of that bill of paper.
@@kroelld :o
@@kroelld And communist trust in Government. Which failed as it usually does. And the people pay. And pay for a fat blood sucking government. No checks. No balances. Chernobyl was the result of such. Among many other things. Soviets were starving when they finally shed communism/socialism.
@@kroelld Exactly
@@zippyzipster46 that “starving”, thing is a complete myth. It is untrue. In fact, many people probably started to starve in the 90s as a result of the unions collapse. But as for Chernobyl, you could say it was indirectly a result of the system in place in the USSR.
2:52 “They were wrong. She lives with her son in Kiev.”
To think that both of them could be dead by now thanks to the ongoing war is depressing.
she moved from Kyiv to a city in Poland, she's most likely okay, not sure about her son though...
A never ending cycle of horror and tragedy
Got to love the Russians.
Last I heard about it they are still living in misery. Making enough money to survive despite her poor condition never to have been compensated by the people who caused this.
@@mikicerise6250 A Good chunk if not a majority of the liquidators who prevented this disaster from spreading were Russians.
I literally broke into tears during the final scene of this, the greatest TV production ever conceived.
The footage shown at the end served to cement the fact, *This isn't fiction* - These were actual true heroes, who paid with their lives.
The epilogue accompanied by a beautiful Slavic orthodox hymn paved the way for some brutally heart wrenching minutes.
The episode recieved a rare high rating of 10 on IMDb.
It's actually a prayer, not a hymn
@@kovbaska6753 I've always loved the Slavic/russian choral music, and especially the amazing depth of their oktavist (slavic Bass singer)
I did too. I think the tears really started following when I saw that Lyudmilla would have a son.
What makes me angry is how easily it could have been prevented by reviewing the design flaws/cancelling the test in the first place. But, of course, this is the Soviet government we’re talking about, and of course, they didn’t. RIP to all those who are lost.
They did an incredible job depicting the historical accuracy of Chernobyl. Considering how much the KGB tried to cover it up.
The poor woman who lost her husband and child “lives in Kiev with her son.” My heart sank when I read that. Hope they are both well.
according to another comment, there was a book written about ther. In short, hers and many who were effected by this did not lead good lives due to being abandoned by the state.
her son died..
@@user-oq8fq3zq3l no..... 😥 Oh God! Even after all that they still have to suffer more
Honestly, Lyudmilla Ignatenko’s story was the most heartbreaking in my opinion from this whole story. To go from being a newlywed living in a stable living situation to losing your husband and daughter to horrific deaths in days must be the hardest thing to live through. I’m so happy that she recovered and now has a son after defying all odds and expectations
"recovered" may be a little bit of a stretch here.
Both her and her son have serious health problems.
Plus they live basically in poverty.
@@NikopolAU yeah that’s true, I didn’t really phrase it correctly. Basically she’s doing a bit better than she was before
@@NikopolAU Her son has asthma
Honestly if you haven’t had the chance to read voices from Chernobyl she has an account in the book and you’ll see how much she went through. I won’t give off any spoilers
I hope she's ok with her son 😢
My grandpa served as a chemist in the soviet army. He was one of those liquidators at Chernobyl. Now he's spending his last days on earth in fear of russian bombs.
My thoughts are with that brave man
🇰🇷 ♡ 🇺🇦
あなたの祖父のご無事を祈ってます🇯🇵🇺🇦
Liar.
My god be with him for doing his part 😕
"The firefighters clothing still remains in the basement of Pripyat hospital.
It is dangerously radioactive to this day"
Wow!
The host behind Veritasium visited the very basement depicted in this show, and it’s arguably one of the most dangerous places to be on Earth apart from the broken reactor core at Chernobyl.
ruclips.net/video/TRL7o2kPqw0/видео.html
I heard someone might have taken a helmet from the basement.
@@Seadog7981 I'm not sure if the helmets were as radioactive as the boots and pants. But still: a dumb move nonetheless.
@@igotanM16 I can't tell how radioactive it is, but it would be illegal and dangerous to transport it.
@@Seadog7981 Go there, enter that room, put a piece of firefighters' gear on and you'll get a lethal dose of radiation in few minutes. That's how radioactive it is. It's horrifying.
This series is proof, if ever proof was needed in the first place, that hero’s exist and the don’t wear stupid costumes, the come from all walks of life. some don’t want to be hero’s and many don’t expect to be
And unfortunately they are rarely rewarded, more likely to be punished for their good deeds and then forgotten
@@samuelrowbotham6322unfortunately your right
This is especially true during events in Ukraine today. Slava Ukraine,gerojam slava!
@@pannedokonaly4947 you are absolutely right
Wow thanks for telling me comic book heroes aren't real I would never have figured it out otherwise
Interesting fact: In Chinese language, specifically Mandarin, the pronunciation of the number “four” is similar to “Die” or “Death”. Therefore, number 4 is usually seen as a bad omen. Boris died in four years and four months after he was sent to Chernobyl, so for us Chinese audience, his death was almost prophetic.
It was Chernobyl reactor number four that blew up too.
I'm surprised that Winnie the Pooh allowed people in China to watch the show, considering that questioning and objecting against authority when they get things wrong is a major theme in it.
@@furioussherman7265 most people just hop the fire wall via vpn, can’t even use RUclips in China
It was prophetic. Remember, Legasov told him they would both be dead in 5 years.
Yes finally I see someone mentioning this. So true.
Those 4 dislikes are people who don't think RBMK reactors can explode
They’re delusional!
Like 1980 soviet officials. There are people in Russia ukriane Belarus who actually think chernobyl was a myth or legend
@@Xipe-totex I'm from Ukraine, noone think it was a myth here. There are couple of idiots or vatniks who believe in conspiracies about it, but noone actually denying it happened.
I don't see any dislikes, do you see any? Get it, cause they removed the dislike button?
Lol
Think the greatest injustice in all this was Fomin was able to go work in another nuclear power plant.
Very likely he cut a deal to take the sentence to protect higher ups from recrimination for keeping the reactor design flaw a secret, and ordering unsafe tests at his plant.
The fact that there was never another disaster implies that he, hopefully, learned a hard lesson that he took into his new job
Only in the movie version of events. In reality, nobody knows what happened to him.
@@JadeEyes1 i dont get what you are saying mate, he literally got another job at a nuclear plant after Chernobyl
@@PantherZalayeta well actually he is a low ranking worker working under someone else.
@@itsblitz4437 im sorry but serves him right
What's sad is that I was never taught about this disaster in High school.
IN Europe we learn a bit about it. The further east you go, the more you learn about it i would say. I'm Macedonian and I probably learned more about this in school than the Belgians did but probably less than the Polish and Belarussians.
@@MartinezMKD1 true, in Belgian schools it is mentioned but nothing more.
My 9th grade history teacher passed over it saying “it’s not that relevant to today, some (idiots) in a power plant made the wrong decision”
Maybe the school systems in high school don't include the event as it was in another country and believed the issue wouldn't pertain to the US. Maybe it's because it's a very sensitive topic. There may be multiple reasons.
i live in czech republic and we never taught about this in school
“Where I once would fear the cost of truth, now I only ask,
What is the cost of lies?”
-Valery Lagasov
- TheGamersTeg "What cost of bad typing?" Also Not Lagasov, A Legosov..
@@ponchikshorts jesus christ can people go one second without understanding that people make mistakes
@@ponchikshorts Have I spelt prick correctly?
2:50 I just watched this series the other day and I screamed when I saw this. Poor woman, to go through Chernobyl and now a war.
She had moved away from Kiev by the time the show aired and was living in a small town near Poland. She most likely got away, but her son is an adult, so he probably stayed behind!
I was just thinking the same!
I highly doubt you screamed, but okay.
@@LordVader1094 don't need to be a dick now
For those of you wondering, this piece titled “Vichnaya Pamyat”translates to “Perpetual Memory” or “Eternal Memory”. Very chilling and somber.
In memory of all who suffered and sacrificed ❤️ You will always be remembered.
Indeed, it’s called Вјечнаја Памјат!
And is an extremely common wish in orthodox christianity (which most of Ukrainians and Russians are ). Mostly heard in funerals
This is the song we sing at funerals in Ukraine
Вічная пам'ять ❤️
Thank you bro ❤❤❤
Thus is one of the reasons why I came here😅
The bridge part wrecked me.
Same, the guy who died near reactor and his body wasn't found got me
The "Bridge of Death" is a bit of an urban legend. There are no accounts of anyone on that bridge.
I immediately thought of all those kids when I saw it
@@benkerr5494 It is not true however, it's more like an urban legend. It is a drama not a documentary
@@Harry-cj6bx well I thought it was true
This is the most chilling 6 min in the history of cinematography.
True. Because is real. That's the true horror.
Shivers down my spine every time.
No it’s not.
@@manmaje3596 Shut up
@242turbo try watching ‘Come and See’ - a soviet film about partisans in Belarus in WW2. That film has the most disturbing cinematography you’ll ever see
Hello. I'm from Russia. I am glad that thanks to this series, the whole world will know (maybe someone will just remember) about this catastrophe.
Keep the souls of the dead
Yes it indeed did boost up alot of fame, Chernobyl was already famous though even before the series like for example in my hometown in mexico, all the way in mexico!, Knew about this disaster like the palm of their hand, Ever since i can remember this story has been known world wide ever since the soviets released info it was a hit story, But then the hype kind of died out and this series brought it all together again.
🇷🇺🇷🇺🇷🇺🇷🇺🌹
Hello from Poland and now from Scotland. I remember very well the catastrophe and despite the censorship, I know that the sacrifice of the people was HEROIC.
These series introduce me to how Sovyet was trying to cope their mistake...its really honorable how their people try to mend up the faulty of Sovyet Government...not just simply put blame on everything like The USA told us to..
But in the end..those people of Sovyet Union were forgotten...and the big name, the villain, the hero, and the other will always be remembered.
I was a kid when this happened. I was living on the Belarusian border with Russia. Sad that I was somewhat close when it happened. I didn't even know the true scale until I watched this.
Thank you writers and creators of this mini-series
"In memory of all who suffered and sacrificed" gets me everytime...
My favorite part of this music begins at 3:10. The music builds, grows louder, adds more voices to the harmony, until the bass comes in just after 3:24 below a full stack of voices. "It has been widely reported that the three divers who drained the bubbler tanks died as a result of their heroic actions." Then the primary choir returns, almost hopeful, when the text says the three divers survived at 3:31.
May favorite part too. A little hope in all this...
I firmly believe they were blessed by God.
This is the most surprising part, those guys survived, when everyone everyone around them died of radiation inna way or another
@@bdtmstrs It's not that surprising in hindsight. Before Chernobyl happened they didn't really know the widespread effect of radiation or how much radiation the protective equipment they had at the time could take. While this level of radiation turned out to be even deadlier than people thought, protective equipment, especially those made with lead, also turned out to be much better than they thought at protecting people from radiation poisoning. The equipment those guys had could have protected them from double the dose of radiation they received without much trouble. It's the same reason why General Pikalov survived without getting sick even though he got so close to the core.
1:40 when Dyatlov turns his head
Legasov, Shcherbina, Pikalov, Tarakanov, and hundreds more. Thank you for your service.
It’s really quite sad how they died for us and the only way we can repay them is to remember
@@bobbyrobbisn9732 obviously you can't donate on their patreon or something. And actually, remembering them is the best way to tribute because people live until they are forgotten. Those people were true heroes who sacrificed their lives for ours. May they rest well
All of them ... heroes .....
Even Comrade "is in shock" Dyatlov.
@@sergiusincredible5607 Why?
Máté Nagy because he literally caused thousands of deaths through his lies, deception and delusions
@@gilgamesh8334 Are you serious or not? It's not clear for me.
Máté Nagy how is it not obvious, Dyatlov was a cun*
Rest in peace *Valery Legasov*
Ironic
@@TusharSundarka Your delusional get to the infirmary
1936-1988 a true hero
There’s something so terrifying to me about Khodemchuk, if I’m spelling that right. A lot of people have died as a cause of Chernobyl and the lies that followed, of course. But I find his fate so much scarier. To not only die in reactor 4, not only has his body never been recovered, but to be told he is PERMANENTLY ENTOMBED UNDERNEATH THE EXPLODED REACTOR… really got to me.
This series isn’t just my favourite miniseries, not just tv show,, but my favourite piece of visual media. The way it can build up all of these domino pieces and knock them all back down by the end is incredible, as is every single filmmaking element you could think of. And this ending montage just goes to show how much scarier reality is than fiction. I may never not cry when hearing, “what is the cost of lies,” ever again.
If it helps he probably died instantly and did not suffer.
One has to hope he died immediately because the alternative, a slow prolonged death by ARS, or worse, starvation or thirst, trapped alone beneath a burning nuclear reactor, doesn't bear thinking about.
In an overly politicized world, to create such a powerful message that transcends all else in especially extraordinary. It is the highest form of art. Amazing 👏
@@janelleg597This disaster was 200% caused by Soviet politics.
I was very thankful for the ending monologue, it was nice for once to get questions answered or details that were eluded to but not really answer until the end. specifically the bridge scene. The fact they were not able to find anyone who survived the bridge viewing from episode one and that two of the men who opened the valves in episode 3 are still alive impressed me they really did there research for this show. I am glad HBO actually released this after that disastrous season 8 game of thrones. Boris Shcherbina started out as someone i did not like at all and by the ending of the show he reminded me of my father all discipline, all hard noise, and no apology for it his ending monologue about not being important that made me see the connection.
*Let him finish*
It was a heartwarming moment! A true redemption.
@@Lasse3 A journey that started with:
"... or I'll have one of these soldiers throw you out of the helicopter."
It's unfortunate though that the Bridge of Death is mostly urban myth according to the people who knew people went to the bridge and were still alive. In fact, survivors are kinda annoyed over this myth
Unfortunately (or more accurately, fortunately) the line about the Bridge of Death is, for an incredibly well researched and accurate series, almost certainly false and quite surprising it was included. There is essentially zero evidence for it, and there are recorded interviews with at least one of the people there by a leading author on Chernobyl no less (who would have been a major research source), making it bizarre to claim they couldn't find anyone alive despite all their research.
My girlfriend is Ukrainian. In 2016 I went with her to visit her family. Of course I’ve been to Ukraine many more times since then. I told her how I badly wanted to visit Pripyat and see everything. She was very upset with me and told me not to go. I spoke with her family on other occasions about this disaster. It’s heartbreaking. But when this series came out? It was very hard for me to watch it. I love my girlfriend and her family deeply. And to see what happened to the Ukrainian people at that time broke me. I know why she didn’t want me to go. It just wasn’t about the radiation. It’s about the deaths of many people and what the Soviets did to their own people. Ukraine will always have a special place in my heart.
i'm glad your respecting your girlfriend's wishes.
You leave the war out?
@@badcornflakes6374 I was in Ukraine before the recent Russian invasion….
I've seen videos of tours there. Some actually take you right next to the wall where the reactor itself was along with the debris, then you get to go into the control room but due to radiation levels there, you can't be there long and the tour guide rushes you. I really wanna visit it just to see for myself
I didn't know about everyone on the bridge dying, but that hit me HARD.
they actually didnt go onto the bridge, everyone in pripyat slept through it. nobody really realised something was wrong until the morning
I've heard that that actually wasn't true
Yeah, fortunately this has been proven false on at least one account
@@EscMoonlight I'm hearing many stories from people in Pripyat, from a few people there getting cancer, to no one, to a huge crowd. Who knows??? It's a mixed bag. We just may never truly know....
Yesterday marked 34 years since the disaster, I rewatched this ending just to make myself shed as many tears as I could. It was before my time but I still feel I owe them that.
If they didn't act like the movie told us..we might not even here right now. Imagine, mass evacuation of entire Europe Continent and radiated Atlantic Ocean...The world surely will colapse straightly in just 2 years..means 1990 will never going to exist at all.
@@wikansaktianto9215 yep without these men the world might be stop at that time
Mobilegamer LOVES black men
I feel like the choir at 3:54-4:24 is chanting out the pain, anger, anguish, and betrayal that the people affected by this disaster felt. It's truly heartbreaking
The song is called Vichnaya pamyat I think and it's typically sung at Orthodox church services for funerals
As powerful this all is, I was quite surprised to find out that the other 3 reactors continued to operate till the final one was shut down in 2000. They are still in the process of decommissioning as of 2021.
Each RBMK reactor was retrofitted with a simple safety device that stopped what Dyatlov did from ever happening again.
Not the best designed nuclear reactor, but I'm very sure if that wasn't looked over like it was we'd be in a different situation.
@@fuckenoathcunt4230 there already were interlocks to prevent Dyatlov from performing that "safety" test. But they were jumpered out (bypassed) in order for the test to happen. He, the other engineer and plant manager broke procedures
People still need energy. You just cannot leave the population in the dark...
@@Aletek Sadly yes but they didn't had to use Chernobyl, the radiation levels were insane probably.
@@AletekI'll spend a few hours, days, or even weeks without power if the alternative means risking a nuclear meltdown like Chernobyl or worse.
Remember the liquidators. Heroes every one of them. A very touching epilogue.
This was a beautiful and well made series but I must say, I take umbrage with their depiction of Dyatlov. In the show he's framed as a villain who's all too keen to throw his colleagues under the bus. In reality, he stayed at the plant until he got too sick to help clean up any more and at the trial, he stood by men like Akimov and Toptunov and maintained that they were only doing what he had told them to. He was a deeply damaged man who'd lost his son to leukemia, likely caused by radiation, and he died a sick, broken old man who had lost everything. The attempt to make him the villain of the piece is not only ghoulish, it completely contradicts Legasov's monologue at the start about how we shouldn't arbitrarily select heroes and villains in real life situations!
Agreed they were far too harsh on his character and it was unfair to portray him in this light if those are true facts
To be honest, there is no villain in the series, only lies.😞
Reality is never black or white, always shades of grey
Tbh I think once you get to the end you no longer see Dytlov as a villain, after they explain how the reactor exploded they show that He actually did the right call an did the proper procedures that he was trained to do an the only villains at the end of it all were the lies that were told that caused more harm
@@therabbit2253 right call at that point was to cancel the experiment but he was under pressure to finish it sooner. He knew it wasn't safe, even Akimov clearly told him that, but of course he didn't know it was unsafe to the point it would explode, but still.
The part that terrifies me about this, is that since this airing the scientists have reported many items missing presumed taken by tourists.
Things still highly radioactive like the fireman equipment.
It's like people watched the show, but learned nothing.
I watched this series about a month ago. In light of the current war in Ukraine, I definitely hope that Lyudmilla and her son are alive and safe. I also thought I would share this information that I found out about some other Chernobyl survivors who are, or are likely, being impacted by the war. According to the Daily Mail, Alexei Ananenko, one of the two still living divers, had to flee Kyiv with his wife near the start of the war. I also found another RUclips video from 2019 where the person who posted it was visiting the memorial to Valery Khodemchuk during a tour at the plant. According to the plant worker who was giving the tour, as of 2019, Valery's widow was living in Kyiv while his daughter was living with her family in Minsk, the capital of Belarus. Belarus is Russia's ally in this, so I can't imagine the impact this war must be having on the Khodemchuk family. It's just awful that these survivors have to go through trauma for a second time in their lives.
Sadly it looks like her son has passed away
A dark reminder of how much human pride can destroy an entire country and it's people throughout history in a vicious cycle of mistakes that will never end.
"They were wrong"
Literally the only happy tears I shed during this epilogue
@@siddhantbanerjee3328 What about 3:25?
I was born in 1997 in Poland, shortly thereafter my parents moved me and my brother to the UK in search of a better life. I love my parents and how they pushed me and my brother to have a better life. However, given the time of our births, I feel like a lifedebt is forever owwed on my part to these fallen heroes. What is this had gone unchecked? Would Poland have become uninhabitable? Would my parents have met? I certainly doubt it.
To the producers at HBO, thank you for honouring the fallen with this touching memorial, and I once again, am eternally thankful to those that payed the ultimate price. I owe you more than my mere life, I owe my entire existence.
I was born in 1985 also in Poland i had 1 year when disaster struck i received “lugola”medicine it was to stop thyroid from absorbing radioactive iodine in air my parents told me it was one of most frightening part of their life i hope humanity will never again be subjected to radiation going out of control .
Jared Harris actually does look a lot like the real Legasov.
3:26 These three brave men unknowingly saved the entire world and history may not remember them, but we will. Rest in peace Alexei Ananenko, Valeri Bespalov, and Boris Baranov
Two of them are still alive today, Alexei and Valeri, Boris Baranov died in 2005 of a heart attack, at 65.
This music... what a masterpiece : O
It's beautiful
The pile of fire fighters cloths and the meter made my jaw drop. It’s scary to think how dangerous radiation really is and how long it remains.
Where I once would fear the cost of truth...
...now I only ask...
*_"What is the cost of lies...?"_*
- Valery Leagsov
A comment from one of the witnesses of those days:
Every now and then one can encounter an "allergic reaction" from the Russian side, which accuses the makers of the series that, despite its "apparent attention to some details," it lies about fundamental matters, including making the "Soviet people" into some kind of slackers, and the Soviet authorities into incompetent cynics for whom their own citizens are cannon fodder, with whose lives no one counts.
As I was a direct witness to the events after the catastrophe, I can tell you from autopsy what was NOT shown in the series, and what makes the enormity of Soviet sleaze and cynicism was incomparably greater than was shown in the series. The Kremlin and their stooges should be grateful that viewers were not shown:
1. The fact that the demonstrations on the first of May - along with the obligatory presence of the children spent on them - took place in both Kiev and Minsk as if nothing had ever happened. Only the families of party secretaries urgently traveled outside the cities. The remaining children, along with their parents, customarily formed a "mass".
2. That children's health problems, which began in Ukraine and Belarus as early as May 1986, were explained by the authorities by "sprayed mandarins" from Georgia or Armenia.
3. That radioactive clouds were dispersed (shot) over Belarus - only to prevent them from coming with the wind over Moscow. As a result, 1/3 of the territory of Belarus was contaminated. (By the way, the fictional character Ulyana Khomyuk from Minsk is a kind of tribute to the country that suffered the most - otherwise no one would have heard about Belarus at all).
4. The fact that a huge amount of radiation year after year poisoned (still poisons?) the entire Ukraine with the water string Pripyat - Kiev reservoir (supplying the entire city of Kiev with water) - Dnieper all the way to the Black Sea. The Pripyat River is extremely contaminated.
5. The fact that the maps of radioactive contamination of Belarus and Ukraine published in newspapers a few months after the catastrophe (in "Evening Minsk" and "Ukrainskaya Pravda" respectively) do not connect with each other in any way - on one side of the border everything is contaminated, on the other it is clean. We all understand that these maps were not prepared in the editorial offices of local newspapers.... These maps - are pure fiction prepared by the KGB. On these maps, all major cities of the region (Kiev, Chernihiv, Gomel, Mogilev) were skillfully avoided by radiation.
6. The fact that ordinary people knew nothing about the accident and the danger for weeks on end, and it could not occur to anyone to at least protect children from running and playing under the long-awaited May rain.
7. The fact that in the USSR, NO ONE gave out Lugol's fluid to anyone so that "ordinary" iodine would be absorbed by the thyroid gland before it absorbed radioactive iodine. It was the Polish Communists who cared about the population - the Soviet authorities did not even minimally care.
8. That, for example, in starving Crimea, where there had never been any meat in the stores, even in better years (except for a few "resort" stores), suddenly in the summer of 1986 a huge batch of mutton was "thrown" at the price of potatoes. Where this meat came from - no one knew, but you can draw your own conclusions.
9. That, according to the orders of the authorities, the contaminated meat should have been made into cold cuts, and the more expensive the cold cuts, the higher the content of contaminated meat had to be (that supposedly people were "less likely" to buy expensive cold cuts, through which they would be less poisoned.... Here is the REAL care of the Soviet authorities for the population!)
10. That all food produced in the contaminated zone - milk, vegetables, canned food (not at all just meat), was exported and sold in "clean" regions - presumably in order to "average the temperature of patients throughout the hospital."
This is what they didn't show us in the series, because such an amount of nightmare and cynicism would have made the series simply unbelievable in the eyes of an unprepared viewer. I, on the other hand, was a WITNESS, and that's how I know that the truth looked even worse than it does from the series.
It has been 35 years today since what happened to Chernobyl. Thank you again to the people who sacrificed. The world would probably not be like that if they did not do that.
Nuclear physics is god level tier tech. It must be treated with the respect and safety that it deserves, period.
I think it is our salvation if we are to break away from Fossil Fuels for electricity generation, especially considering the idea of Thorium reactors. But the utmost care needs to be put into place. Chernobyl unfortunately gets used so much to oppose nuclear power, when in reality every part of the process (reactor designer, engineers on site and USSR government regulation) failed miserably.
The dramatic spike in cancer rates mostly children part killed me! 😢
It's heartbreaking
Sad
The part of Valery Khodemchuk's body that never found was cruel too :'(
My roommate is one of them
Thankfully a lot of them were thyroid cancer, which has a high survival rate even back then.
120 likes & 0 dislikes. Not great, not terrible.
In all seriousness, this is a beautiful ending to such a tragic event, it kind of sad that I was not alive during the time of Chernobyl and was also never really taught about it. Because of this series, I’m glad to finally know how it all came to be.
May those who sacrificed their live to prevent this disaster from spreading further Rest in Peace.
Now 4 dislikes
@@thekiller7994 well, no one’s perfect
now literally no dislikes because its impossible to see
67 dislikes
I finally got the balls to watch the series last October and wow, it was phenomenal and so anxiety inducing and gut wrenching.
that is hands down the saddes credits I ever witnessed rolling over the screen
I just came back to this video, as I remembered the information of Ludmilla Ignatenko living in Kyiv. Thinking about her these days and it breaks my heart to think, she has go through hell twice in her life, probably need to send her son to armed forces, based on his estimated age.
its unbelievable
she left kyiv awhile ago and lives in a small town somewhere in poland i think
Tschernobyl in a sentence: "Man's reach exceeded his grasp." We will never forget what happened and those that sacrificed themselves to save the rest of the world.
"They were wrong. She lives with her son in Kiev."
The city that is currently being shelled by the red army...
Nothing will compare to watching this at 2 am during the original broadcast alone in a dark room
Such a amazing ending to an amazing show
Same, I’ll never forget that. I was a weeping mess.
Me and my family watched it all in one go, finishing at 4am, I can't say ive ever seen my whole family so somber
My grandmother was one of the scientists who was involved in the process of liquidating. She worked in the institute of Nuclear Power in Kyiv. Same building that was shown as nuclear institute in Belarus in the show. They had frames, like a metal detector, but ones that detect active particles. To check if you are not contaminated after an experiment for example. So the thing is that after the explosion, the frames would ring alarm when workers were coming FROM OUTSIDE into the building. This mess was all over the streets of my hometown.
And now my home is bombed by other enemy - Russia, who is a direct heir of soviet regime.
I am lucky that I left the country long ago, but my grandmother is still alive and lives in Kyiv. She was born during ww2, survived chernobyl and now there is another war. I love her so much, but afraid that will never see her again
To the brave men and women, thank you for giving the ultimate sacrifice to not only Ukraine but to all of Europe. May god bring you ever lasting peace forever. May you continue to rest in peace.
This epilogue is hauntingly beautiful. You can see the brave men and women who saved the world from a terrible fate, but the price they had to pay for it was high. Despite their bold sacrifices, justice was never truly served in the CCCP. Only after it collapsed in 1991 did all of us hear what actually happened in that irradiated nightmare during 1986. It was only years later that I learnt my uncle was a liquidator and that it ultimately costed him his life. He had brought me to the outskirts of the exclusion zone a couple of years before his death.
I asked him: “What happened to the people who cleaned this place up?”
In his usual deep and vibrating voice he said: “Bad things happened to alot of them, but they are at peace now. Trough sacrifice and tears, there was victory, but at a cost. Our family will notice sooner or later what was sacrificed.”
I had no idea that he was actually talking about himself here, and it blew me away into a emotional rollercoaster when I finally realized. I’m still in possession of his liquidators medal.
Damn your uncle was honestly something else. You and your family should be proud to be related to someone like that.
The music along with the pictures/ clips and the information that accompanied absolutely broke me... incredible TV series. Just incredible.
It is never bad to come once in a while and remember them. 26/04/21
For those of us who remember Chernobyl as a real time event, I can tell you, our information was very limited at the time. We knew something had occurred because of Scandinavian radiation detectors. It took days for the Kremlin to acknowledge the accident. In the 80s, life was a continual bluff and military buildup between the US and the USSR. A nuclear accident in the USSR just amped the tension. I remember reading articles about the "liquidators" and the miners building the containment buffer, but the extent of the accident was not well known at the time. Watching Chernobyl was doubly horrific. Both as a devastating event for Ukraine and Belarus and vivid memory for those alive during that time.
I went there in 2018. If youre old enough to remember this (not just heard about it from this series), it was cool to put a vision to the memories.... even in Los Angeles we were worried about the radioactive cloud that was being carried by the jet stream...
Pripyat, the city just outside of the Reactor area, is a trip. Totally surreal. Major city with high rise buildings, completely abandoned, with a forrest growing all through it. Photographers dream.
Highly recommend getting out there if you can.
And this series was amazing.
I want to see the memorial wall for Khodemchuck. It’s on the wall that sections Reactor 4 off from the rest of the plant. I hope someday in the future they are able to find any of his remains, or at least where he was in his last moments. But it’s suspected that he was either vaporized instantly by the explosion, or the amount of radiation cause his entire body to melt. Either way, his death was quick.
This happened nine years before I was born. The biggest disaster I’ve ever been witness to live (sort of) was 9/11, which happened when I was five. I remember watching it on TV at school. but I still really want to go and see Chernobyl and Pripyat. How do I explain it…it’s like, you read and learn about these disastrous events, and you see the pictures, and you know it really happened, but it still doesn’t quite feel real. The only way to cement that it happened is to see it for yourself. Kinda like how I wanted to take a trip in a sub to see the Titanic’s resting place (not possible of course, as I’m pretty sure they’ve declared you can’t dive to it anymore). I did take a trip to NYC a few years after 9/11 and we saw ground zero, and it was really surreal. Just a big empty space where the twin towers used to be. I think they were even still cleaning away the rubble, because the area was fenced off.
This was really heartbreaking to watch..
Cherbobyl reminded humanity how fragil we are as a species
Me coincidentally watching this on 26th April 2024. its 3:31 AM.
Not great....not terrible.
One of the greatest mini series in the history of television.
Something they left out but also really should be known about this: The other 3 reactors at Chernobyl remained in operation until a fire broke out in the turbine hall of Reactor No. 2 in 1991 forcing them to shut that one down permanently too. This incident ended up compelling the Ukrainian government to start decommissioning the facility in 1996 and shut down Reactor No. 1. Final operations ceased when Reactor No. 3 was shut down in 2000.
Chernobyl power plant was needed to feed huge over-the-horizon missile launch detection system hosted nearby en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Duga_radar, so shutting the satiation down during Soviet Union was not possible until the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1992. In 1992 Ukraine got the independence, in 1994 there were first more-or-less democratic parliamentary elections in Ukraine, it took some for the Ukrainian Parliament to get to the Chernobyl issue (as there were other issues, believe me), and then there was a decision to decommission the station.
@@sliiiin There is a massive electric grid in the USSR that could have done that, it's just that this grid was very important in the USSR, and men like Valery Legasov even said themselves that an unexpected shutdown of a Nuclear Reactor is a serious incident.
This ending music captures the scale and doom of the Chernobyl disaster, I also believe this music sums up all disasters in history and the horrific aftermath that always follows. I could not help but think of this music being used on a tribute of the aftermath of the sinking of the Titanic, it just fits so well.
Indeed, that is the purpose of all Memory Eternal pieces, which are sung at funerals and other memorial services at Orthodox Christian churches. No matter the scale of the loss or tragedy, it is given to those of us who live to never forget those who have left us. Just this past Sunday at my church, we ended our usual service with a full memorial in honor of those celebrated on Memorial Day - with all the living former members of the armed services up front to honor those departed. The music suits such a day, Chernobyl, the sinking of the Titantic, and all other such losses both past and to come!
The railway bridge was 4,000 feet from Reactor 4...those people stood no chance.
It practically snowed radiation on them from the ash of the explosion. They were dead as soon as they saw the ash...
I went into the show expecting a harrowing documentative drama about the Chernobyl disaster, and I got it. But I was also presented with a glimpse into Soviet paranoia, a few of the most compellingly written characters I've ever seen, and an epic of tragic bravery. What a show.
They left out a really interesting fact that Chernobyl still continued to make power with its other 3 reactors even after the meltdown. It stopped making power in 2000.
"What's something that stuck with you after making this series?"
"You can be at fault but also be the victim, every time we go through a traffic light, we're in a conspiracy of thought, we're trusting something that to us is a sure fact, that others will let us go.
Just how everyone knows no matter how much you push it, the reactor won't explode"
Chernobyl 35 years later on this day. Rest in peace to all who suffered and sacrificed. 🙏
i watched this series with my dad who has dyslexia. as i was reading out the words on this epilogue to him they've become engrained in my mind. some traumatising stuff.
I watched this series during quarantine and it broke me. The immense tragedy of the human cost hurt me emotionally and I couldn't stop thinking about it for days.
I'm praying for Ukraine.God
May god protect her people in her hardest of times.
Bless Ukraine & its heroic People💙💛
thank you🥺🇺🇦
To those who worked around the clock to stop the reactor from leaking, you saved the lives of not just every man and women in the region but all life on earth.
This epilogue still makes me cry just knowing how much pain and misery Chernobyl caused not only to the heroes who worked around the clock to stop it from getting worse but also to the world that watched in horror I believe Chernobyl if it's not already should be a World Heritage site as a reminder that humanity is fragile and delicate
As a reminder that goverment is stupid and only individuals can do the right thing.
2 of my uncles were liquidators in Chernobyl. Both have cancer now 😥
Aw no 😢
I’m sorry
They are heroes, you should be proud. God bless them
I am so so sorry
Share their stories....the world owes them a huge debt
And there it sits. Entombed. Never sleeping Never stopping. Still alive and still deadly.
This is the best epilogue I've ever watched in my life. This is so sad.♥️
She lives w her son in Kiev...which is about to be invaded by Russian and is being encircled by Russia as we speak...😢😢
Remains the best television I’ve ever seen
This, and Band of Brothers.
спасибо за вашу жертву, за вашу храбрость. вичная память
*2024 still masterpiece..Rip all heroes*
Hope that poor woman is safe right now!
I live in Bogota Colombia and in high school our history teacher told us the whole story in detail and how it happened, she didn't have to do it because it wasn't among the topics we were supposed to learn but she took her time to tell us everything what she knew about the disaster, one of the few teachers with a real vocation to teach that I had in my entire life.
Chernobyl is the proof of how incompetence and corruption can have much broader effect than just the immediate damage it causes.
The most hauting thing is , so many people watched the disaster without even realizing what it was uncovering., how powerful it was .
Soundtrack is just perfect!
You can take tours around Pripyat and indeed around the Chernobyl plant itself, away from the sarcophagus, of course.
A particular dream of mine is to walk around such a place. A period of history pretty much frozen in time. Of course there are people who still live and work there, but the point stands.
The unsung heroes of Chernobyl! Valery Legasov, the three divers, the world will always remember. ❤️
We need to be eternal grateful about these heroes, that sacrificed their lives to save ours
Many heartbreaking moments during this. But the part that’s hits hardest for me is the soviets death count of 31.. damn
Watched this show over and over and still gives me chills